She hated that she needed proof.
They passed a stall with bolts of cloth. Bettie ran a hand across a strip of blue as if it were water, and Katie found a thin cord tied to a bell and tugged it once, making the bell sing. Alex looked over, and Katie pocketed her hands like a sinner at church. He said nothing. She put the cord down without being told.
Erica kept walking, one step behind, and let herself think a thought she had worked hard to ignore.
What would it be like to see this every day? Not the market or the noise or the crowd from all sides of the square. But him. The small acts. The steady care. The way he bent to listen, because he did not think he had to be tall to be obeyed.
The thought slid to a place that heated her face. Moonlight on his back. The quiet lift of his shoulders in the lake and water tracking every line down to where the surface hid him. Her pulse stuttered.
“Erica?”
His voice came almost out of nowhere, and it felt like a cold, wet blanket all over her body. She swallowed and turned to look at him.
“Ye havenae spoken in a while. Is everything all right?”
She nodded, her voice tight. “Aye. I am fine.”
“Daenae tell me ye have pushed the duty of handling these children to me alone.”
Erica laughed, perhaps for the first time since she had arrived at the market. “Ye seem to be doing a good job of that all by yerself.”
For a hot minute, she couldn’t see anything except his figure in the lake. She wasn’t sure that image would vanish anytime soon. Or ever.
He gave her a brief, almost reassuring smile before turning around to keep his focus on the children.
Erica decided to focus on the things happeningaroundthem. It was the only way to keep her thoughts in one place.
A musician near a well pulled a tune from a small whistle, and two children spun in a clumsy circle. The square made room for all of it despite Alex in their midst. No one hurried them or tried to sell what they did not need. The village did not strain to impress its Laird, and that, to her, said more than any speech ever could.
Alex bartered for a twist of licorice rope and broke it even. One piece for each twin. He kept none for himself. Katie offered hima bite from her piece. He shook his head and sent her to share with Bettie instead.
Erica forced her attention to the nearest stall. She asked for the cost of eggs and nodded at the answer, though she did not need eggs. The seller tried to press a bundle into her hands. She paid and kept the bundle small.
A shout rose from the far edge, where a pony skittered at a dropped pan. Alex turned his head and then back again when he saw a stable boy already soothing the animal. Erica noticed that he didn’t jump forward to take control. She noticedallof it.
They paused at the fountain when the girls spotted a tray of sugared twists. Bettie tugged Katie toward the stall with a look that promised trouble. Erica let them go three steps and no more.
“Stay where I can see ye,” she called.
“Aye,” they sang, already haggling with the seller.
Erica turned slightly toward Alex. “Ye let us win.”
Alex frowned, and the confusion on his face grew more evident. “What?”
“At the tug of war earlier. I ken ye lost on purpose.”
He scoffed. “I didnae.”
“Ye absolutely did.” She raised a brow.
“Coincidence,” he said, mouth almost curving.
“Me braither used to do that, ye ken,” she said, softer. “Pretend he lost so I wouldnae sulk.”
Something shifted across his face, a twitch of his eye. It was not pity, and Erica was immensely grateful for that. It was more of a recognition. Like he knew what she was going through.
They both reached for the fountain’s edge in the same breath, perhaps to look composed, perhaps to have something to do with their hands. Then their fingers brushed.
